


Connections

by Namesonboats (Viken2592)



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Drabble, Gen, Loss, Moving On, Post TLJ
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-24
Updated: 2019-11-24
Packaged: 2021-02-17 21:56:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21550411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Viken2592/pseuds/Namesonboats
Summary: Leia and Rey have a chat inside the Falcon.
Relationships: Leia Organa & Rey
Comments: 6
Kudos: 8
Collections: Fridays with Flydam





	Connections

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Embrace.

The doors to the private chamber of the Falcon open before Leia with a hiss. Supporting a part of her weight on her cane, she takes a step inside and turns to face the golden droid behind her. C-3PO comes to a halt.

“On second thought," Leia says, "this meeting will be solely between Rey and I. Return to the deck and wait for my call.”

Rey, standing behind the droid, widens her eyes.

With a characteristic lift to his arms to display surprise (C-3PO was programmed to react to changes to the protocol), the droid huffed an “Oh!” and a “Yes, General,” and turned back. The light of the panels hit his limbs and sent a golden hue on the grey of the spacecraft’s durasteel walls as he returns to the survivors of the resistance in his stilted gait.

The door closes behind the two women with a faint thump. Leia blinks from the whiff of cool air sent against her face. The empty space in her heart - that void where her brother used to be, seated next to the hole where Han was - shudders, expands, threatens to bleed into her every fibre.

Facing the girl, Leia allows tendrils of light emanate from her core to lock her heart in place to prevent it from bursting. Her mission in this universe is not over.

Not yet. Until it is, she must keep her crumbling heart intact.

“Now,” she says, mustering warmth her voice, knowing her request will frighten the girl, “you’re going to have to tell me everything.”

Rey, still holding the pieces of Anakin’s (and Luke’s, the mere thought of her brother’s name sends a spike of pain through Leia) heaves her chest in a great sigh. She tenses her shoulders, her jaw is stiff and her eyes are brimmed with tears.

“I went to Snoke’s ship. I thought -” she exhales through her nose, a blush slowly creeping to color her cheeks, “I was a fool.”

Surprise fills Leia like a draught of sparkling brew bubbling through her limbs. The happenings since Rey left for Ach-to appears to Leia like a jig-saw puzzle; on a sudden, a few pieces come together to form a picture of - Ben.

“You thought you could bring my son back to the light.”

“No!” Rey’s blush deepens, “I thought I could make him see that the light never left him! I saw it in him. I saw him turn.”

Another piece clicks into the puzzle - could it be? Leia’s hand on the cane tremble; she puts the other on top of it. Her rings shimmer in the faint light of the room.

“How?”

When Rey doesn’t immediately answer, Leia repeats her question with more insistence.

“The force.” The girl’s gaze pleads with a wish for understanding. “We were connected. We spoke although we were in different parts of the universe.” Rey purses her lips - in regret… in pain?

Leia’s heart pinch in a new way. The girl was trying to veil her hurt in anger.

“A force connection?”

“Yes. Snoke opened it. He knew I’d take the bait. He told us himself before we -” Rey’s eyes are large. “Ben - _Kylo Ren_ killed him. He killed Snoke.”

A shower of emotions flood Leia with such force she struggles to untangle them. Holding on the table at her side - the very table where she defeated her brother and her husband in Dejarik more times than she could count - she takes a moment to organise her thoughts. She must choose her next words wisely, with care for this girl who is so strong in the force but so raw, so in need of guidance.

 _Snoke dead, killed by her son._ Ben, the new Supreme Leader of the First Order. He’s taken the power with the aid of this girl who thought he’d leave, to do - what? To join the resistance?

 _Oh, Rey_.

A force connection. Leia and Luke had it. After the first time they met, it grew in their hearts to allow them to speak over space and time. They had saved each other’s lives many times thanks to it. It broke her heart when he, crushed and disoriented after the happenings at his Jedi academy, closed off the connection to disappear. A part of Leia wanted to do the same; to leave, disappear, hide her shame from the world. The shame of her failure to understand what happened inside Ben.

All her life, she’s struggled to end the war but the war never ended. Through her, it continued in the hands of her son, drawn to the darkness like a moth to the light.

“What happened then?”

Anger flashes in the eyes of the girl again, but behind that anger simmers a spark of that emotion she tried so hard to veil before; hurt.

“We fought Snoke’s guards. After, he asked me to join him. He told me... “

Leia’s chest aches. The girl closes her mouth but opens it again; she’s decided not to share all the details. Why? What did he tell her?

“Yes?”

“That it was time to let old things die. The Jedi and the Sith, the rebels…” Rey lifts a defiant gaze but the hurt in her wells towards Leia like a cold breeze.

“He had Luke's lightsaber; I tried to grab it with the force. We fought and there was an explosion. I woke up and…”

“You got out of the ship and contacted Chewie.”

Rey nods. A pearl of sweat glistens at her temple.

A wave of warmth flows through Leia’s chest. Time to let old things die? _We’ll see about that_. _This old thing can still fight for what’s right_. Leia dampers a chuckle; it would confuse the girl. At least her son’s wish didn’t echo a power-hungry cry for more violence, more death...

This girl she hardly knows, Rey… So brave. The light in her is so strong, yet, something else resides in her, something Leia recognizes from her son. A place inside them where a wellspring of loneliness and fear and resentment bubbled like hot ink.

The Falcon continues through hyperspace in that fluid state that felt like running an ignited lightsaber through cotton. In the other room awaits the broken remains of the resistance, waiting for her to lead them, to give them hope. The panels in the room blink with a calm light and the harmonious buzz and hum of the craft resonate in tune with the stars around them.

“First of all,” the smile that dimples Leia’s cheeks is warm and sincere, “don't regret your choice to go after him.” Rey’s eyes widen so large Leia continues to not let the girl splurt more self-blame, “You did it because you thought it was the right thing to do. You took a great risk, and things didn’t go as you’d hoped. That doesn’t mean it was a mistake. Secondly, “ she lets her gaze sink to the broken weapon in Rey’s hands, “we need to fix that. No Jedi is ever without a lightsaber.”

Rey’s face twist in worry, she takes a few steps closer.

“If the bond is still there between me and Kylo Ren, I can’t stay with you. I can’t risk exposing the resistance -”

Leia seizes one of the girl’s shoulders in her hand. Her smile is gone.

“Nonsense. You belong with us. There are ways to break force bonds. My brother -” Leia’s needs a moment to swallow the lump in her throat, “managed to break ours. We will find a way. Besides,“ she scrutinizes Rey’s eyes, the mix of green and hazel like a forest bed, “is it really what you want?”

Rey’s small pause of hesitancy is all Leia need to sense the conflict in her.

“Yes! Of course, it’s what I want -”

“Well, I don’t think you have to worry about him finding us. He didn’t find Luke despite your bond, did he?”

With a sigh of relief that resembles a sob, Rey sinks into Leia’s embrace and leans her chin against the soft fabric on Leia’s robes. The older woman steadies the younger, heartbeat against heartbeat.

When they come apart, Rey’s gaze has gained a harder note and her voice does not wobble.

“General -”

“I told you, call me Leia.”

“Leia. What do you know of the destruction of Luke’s Jedi temple? Of his and Ben’s relationship?”

There it is again, the deep pain of failure that rasps like a knife at Leia’s insides. She acknowledges the sting but disallows any creeping sense of self-pity. Leia has no use for such emotions.

“Much, but not enough. We will speak of this, but later. You need a new bacta patch on that cut on your arm, and some food and rest. Everything will feel better in the morning, I promise.”

With another squeeze to Rey’s shoulder, Leia motions the girl to step out of the room and join the others. She rests for a moment while the doors open again with their characteristic hiss, filled with a bittersweet sensation. It’s like her heart is dipped in a mix of tar and honey.

The void in the girl, so like that inside of her son. Could it be that Ben, with his desperate loneliness she and Han never could salvage - met Rey as an equal? Did Rey meet her equal in him?

Could they be like different sides of the same coin?

One thing was certain. The force bound Rey and Kylo Ren in a connection only achieved by those exceptionally strong in the force, and they were bound to meet again.

Before that happened, Leia would not fail Rey, like she once failed her son. The fate of the Galaxy was at stake.


End file.
